Prints by Walter Dendy Sadler
Dendy Sadler was born in Dorking, and brought up in Horsham, where he showed a precocious talent for drawing. At age 16 he decided to become a painter and enrolled for two years at Heatherly's School of Art in London, subsequently studying in Germany under W. Simmler. He exhibited at the Dudley Gallery from 1872 and at the Royal Academy from the following year through to the 1890s. He painted contemporary people in domestic and daily life pursuits, showing them with comical expressions illustrating their greed, stupidity etc. Dendy Sadler was best known for his pictures of monks - his reputation was established with a picture of monks fishing called 'Steady Brother, Steady' (1875), and his most well-known paintings are 'Thursday' (Tate Gallery, and incidentally one of the first three pictures in Henry Tate's collection) also showing monks fishing, and 'Friday' (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool), where they are consuming their catch the next day. The monks are characterised as good natured but foolish looking fellows. The combination of realism with whimsicality follows an English tradition of almost slapstick humour, which seems to work better as black and white illustration in the pages of Punch or in light-hearted articles by artists such as Harry Furniss. Another slightly whimsical picture is 'End of the Skein' at the Lady Lever Art Gallery.
Perhaps more to modern taste are Sadler's less blatant pictures, as in 'For Fifty Years' (1894), showing an old gentleman happily offering his arm to his blank-faced bored wife - for him 50 years of domestic bliss, for her half a century of increasing dullness. In pictures like this, or 'An Offer of Marriage' of 1895, Sadler also gives some of the best studies of Victorian interiors. He was criticised for this background detail, as it detracted from the subjects of his pictures, but it seems fair to me for a whimsical painting to provide encouragement for the eye to wander around the scene rather than being pushed too hard towards the 'point'. (The above notes courtesy of Bob Speel, click here to see his website dedicated mainly to 19th century British art.)
Sizes are height by width in centimetres &
inches for to the plate mark, there will
be further margins outside this area.
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larger view of the item, note that images shown do not include any inscriptions
or margins and are for guidance only, they do not reflect the full quality of the subject.
Click
here to see several examples with images showing entire prints,
including inscriptions and plate marks
( These are just a selection of the prints available, click here for the full catalogue )
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Large Walter Dendy Sadler prints
(Victorian
art)
|
Top of the Hill |
When The Heart Was Young |
Christmas Carols |
|
Memories |
Mated |
The Awakening |
|
The Mail Bag |
All My Fancy Dwells On Nancy |
Scandal and Tea |
|
Darby and Joan |
End of the Skein |
In Memory's Garden |
|
The Old And The Young |
It Might Have Been John |
Parent and Guardian |
|
Barber's shop
Morning Gossip |
Nearly Done |
When we were Boys Together |
|
The Christening |
Summer's Day |
Wedding
Health to the Bride |
Medium and smaller Walter Dendy Sadler prints
|
The Groom, Victorian wedding
His Wedding Morn |
Victorian interior
Parson & Squire |
The Cup That Cheers |
|
Joy in Sweet Remembrance |
With All My Heart |
Long Long Ago |
|
Who Is It ? |
Grandfather |
The Postman |
|
My Love to You Dear |
Same to You Dear |
|
Website copyright Steve Bartrick, Images Copyright Thomas Ross Limited. Unauthorised reproduction is prohibited.
